Fair Trade Coffee Cooperatives in Guatemala
In the western highlands of Guatemala, CRS and its local partner, Cáritas San Marcos, has been supporting coffee farmers for more than a decade. In 1992, the Diocese of San Marcos supported the creation of coffee cooperatives in the region as part of its pastoral work for rural community development. One of those cooperatives is APECAFORM —the Asociación de Pequeños Caficultores Orgánicos Maya-Mames. Today, APECAFORM numbers more than 400 small-scale farmers and exports 150,000-200,000 pounds of coffee every year to Europe and the United States (where some of our Coffee Program partners were among their first buyers.)
Clemente was one of the charter members of the APECAFORM cooperative. photo credit: CRS/Michael Sheridan
In 2005, CRS and its local partners helped APECAFORM conduct a strategic planning process in which they analyzed their role in the coffee production chain. Through this process, the cooperative identified obstacles to its own competitiveness in the areas of post-harvest processing, transportation and finance. Based on this analysis, and in collaboration with CRS, its partners and others, APECAFORM has taken concrete steps to improve their competitiveness.
Post-Harvest Processing
APECAFORM constructed two additional drying patios to increase its capacity to process coffee in a timely fashion during the peak periods of the harvest.
Transportation
The coop secured a loan from the Government of Guatemala for the purchase of an eight-ton truck to transport their coffee to the mill where it is processed.
Finance
In order to provide its members with credit until their coffee is sold to international buyers, APECAFORM secured a loan on fair terms from Ecologic Finance, a lending agency that specializes in providing financing to Fair Trade cooperatives.
photo credit: CRS/Michael Sheridan
Through the Fair Trade Fund, CRS has also supported an APECAFORM initiative designed to create economic opportunities for women. In the late 1990s, APECAFORM’s Gender Committee created a women’s coffee roastery project in which a small group of women purchase green coffee from the cooperative and roast, grind and package it for sale on Guatemala’s domestic market. The women control the proceeds from these sales and make the decisions within the household about how that money is spent. Through the Fair Trade Fund, CRS was able to two grants, one to finance the modernization of the roasteryand another to help the women devise a coherent strategy to market their coffee domestically.
To purchase coffee grown by CRS-supported cooperatives in Guatemala, visit the CRS Coffee Map and look for the “g.” logo to find roasters that carry it.